Why is Burma declaring state of emergency in troubled Kokang region? 
Despite democratic elections and preliminary peace deals with many ethnic groups in Burma, reports of bitter fighting and mass casualties in the country’s isolated north-east have cast another cloud over this troubled nation’s future. 

Above: Red Cross convoy under attack in Burma

Wednesday 18 Feb 2015

Fighting between Burma’s army and ethnic rebels from the little-known Kokang region of Shan State erupted nine days ago when ethnic fighters – dubbed “the renegades” by the government – made a “well organized” attempt to take the main city of Laukkai, just a few miles from the Chinese border.

The rebels were beaten back by Burmese troops, but the fighting has spread to different areas and dozens of combatants have lost their lives.

Last night, the Burmese president Thein Sein declared martial law, saying he was not prepared to lose an “inch of Myanmar’s territory.” It gives the military in Myanmar (as Burma is officially known) unprecedented powers to deal with the trouble.

There is plenty of trouble to deal with.

At least 30,000 people have fled over the border into nearby China and on Tuesday, unknown attackers shot and wounded people travelling in a Red Cross convoy of eight vehicles.

“We haven’t had such an attack before,” said a spokesperson for the humanitarian organisation. “This would be the very first.”

The government blamed the attack firmly on the rebels, who call themselves the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA).

But that was denied by their general secretary, Htun Myat Lin, who spoke to Channel 4 News.

“The convoy was passing through territory held by the Burmese,” he said. “It couldn’t have been us.” Mr Htun argued that the Kokang, who are ethnic Han Chinese, are fighting for political autonomy – as well as, “the right not to be killed by the Burmese army.”

The MNDAA are led by an 85-year-old called Peng Jiasheng.

A colourful character, he’s a former communist commander who is also credited with setting up the first heroin production factory in Kokang. The Burmese military threw him out and clamped down on his drugs business in 2009.

Nonetheless, he remains a powerful figure, at least in the region itself.

Analysts say he has skilfully appealed for support from the Chinese public by referring to the struggle of the “Chinese Kokang people” and accusing the Burma’s army of serving “American interests” to drum up even more support.

The Chinese authorities are a different story: government officials do not want to risk jeopardising significant business interests in Burma – and officials have already complained about the fact that thousands of refugees are tramping over the Chinese border.

A spokeswoman from the foreign ministry said China was, “calling on all sides… to ensure peace and stability of the border, and especially to avoid affecting security on the Chinese side.”

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Additional reporting by Aung Zaw Min

- See more at: http://blogs.channel4.com/world-news-blog/burma-declares-martial-law-kokang-china-peng-jiasheng/28749#sthash.nhwLQE2r.dpuf

India clears $8 billion warships project to counter Chinese navy

An Indian navy serviceman walks down the gangplank of the newly commissioned warship, INS Kolkata, during its commissioning ceremony at a naval base in Mumbai August 16, 2014.

India's sanitation crisis

BY SANJEEV MIGLANI-Wed Feb 18, 2015

(Reuters) - The government has cleared a $8 billion plan to build India's most advanced warships, defence sources said, just months after ordering new submarines to close the gap with the Chinese navy in the Indian Ocean.

Since taking over last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has signalled his resolve to build a strong military after years of neglect that military planners say has left India unable to fight a two-front war against China and Pakistan.

India's navy has been rattled in recent months after Chinese submarines docked in Sri Lanka, just off its southern coast, underlining the growing reach of the Chinese navy after years of staying closer to its shores.

Modi summoned a meeting of the cabinet committee on security on Monday to approve construction of seven frigates equipped with stealth features to avoid easy detection, a defence ministry source said.

The Times of India said the government had also approved six nuclear-powered submarines for a further $8 billion. The defence source said he had no knowledge of the nuclear submarine programme, which traditionally has been kept under wraps.

The frigates in a programme called Project-17A will be built at government shipyards in Mumbai and Kolkata, in a boost for Modi's Make in India campaign to build a domestic defence industrial base and reduce dependence on expensive imports that have made India the world's biggest arms market.

"Project 17-A was awaiting cabinet clearance since 2012," the source said, adding the Modi government was moving quickly on a project seen as of critical national importance.

The source said the government expects to sign a contract with the shipyards within the month. Another source in the navy confirmed the cabinet clearance but said it would take a decade or even longer for all the ships to be built, even if the shipyards were to start construction immediately.

China's naval forays in the Indian Ocean have exposed the Indian navy's weak undersea defences, which are down to 13 ageing diesel-electric submarines after a string of accidents including one in 2013 in which 18 sailors were killed.

In October, Modi's administration approved fast-tracking the tender process to build six submarines in collaboration with a foreign builder.

"This government is showing signs of urgency, but there is a lot of ground to be covered," said former vice admiral Arun Kumar Singh. "All our programmes are running way behind schedule and with a huge amount of cost over-runs."

Ukrainian troops begin leaving embattled transport hub

Ukrainian troops were seen withdrawing from the town of Debaltseve. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko denied claims that pro-Russian troops had them surrounded. (AP)

By Karoun Demirjian and Michael Birnbaum February 18 at 10:07 AM

ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine — Hundreds of exhausted Ukrainian forces staged a chaotic retreat Wednesday from a strategic town besieged by pro-Russian rebels, marking a major defeat for the government and bringing uncertain consequences to efforts at ending the 10-month-old conflict.

Gas pipeline in Ukraine explodes amid clashes(0:54)A gas pipeline exploded after being hit by a shell near a power station at the highway turnoff to Svitlodarsk, Ukraine, about 15 miles from Debaltseve. (Karoun Demirjian/The Washington Post)

served as the Berlin correspondent and an education reporter.

Ukrainian Troops Begin Leaving Embattled Transport Hub by Thavam Ratna

What Putin Learned From Reagan

Russia’s power play for Ukraine takes a page out of the Gipper’s playbook. We should have seen it coming.

BY STEPHEN M. WALT-FEBRUARY 17, 2015

There was a great power that was worried about its longtime rival’s efforts to undermine it. Its leaders thought the rival power was stronger and trying to throw its weight around all over the world. In fact, this longtime rival was now interfering in places the declining state had long regarded as its own backyard. To protect this traditional sphere of influence, the worried great power had long maintained one-sided relationships with its neighbors, many of them led by corrupt and brutal oligarchs who stayed in power because they were subservient to the powerful neighbor’s whims.
What Putin Learned From Reagan by Thavam Ratna

“What is Inexcusable is Venezuela's Political independence” 

Venezuelan general arrested over plot to topple president, officials say 

By: John Pilger-16 February 2015

An interview with 

John Pilger, conducted by Michael Albert.

Why would the U.S. want Venezuela’s government overthrown?

There are straightforward principles and dynamics at work here. Washington wants to get rid of the Venezuelan government because it is independent of U.S. designs for the region and because Venezuela has the greatest proven oil reserves in the world and uses its oil revenue to improve the quality of ordinary lives. Venezuela remains a source of inspiration for social reform in a continent ravaged by an historically rapacious U.S. An Oxfam report once famously described the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua as ‘the threat of a good example’.

“What is Inexcusable is Venezuela's Political Independence” by Thavam Ratna

HSBC: Swiss bank searched as officials launch money-laundering inquiry

Investigation into suspected ‘aggravated money laundering’ comes after Belgium and France begin scrutinising tax affairs of Europe’s biggest bank

HSBC private bank in Geneva, Switzerland. Photograph: Harold Cunningham/Getty Images

Jill Treanor-Wednesday 18 February 2015 

Pressure on HSBC mounted on Wednesday when prosecutors in Switzerlandannounced a money-laundering investigation into its Geneva-based private banking subsidiary and raided its offices in the city.

Prosecutors said the investigation into “suspected aggravated money laundering” was prompted by “the recent published revelations” about the private bank. Therevelations, by the Guardian, the BBC, Le Monde and other media outlets, showed that HSBC’s Swiss banking arm turned a blind eye to illegal activities of arms dealers and helped wealthy people evade taxes.

A search was being led by the prosecutor-general, Olivier Jornot, and the first prosecutor Yves Bertossa. The inquiry could later be extended to people suspected of committing or participating in money laundering, prosecutors said.

The investigation in Switzerland comes after inquiries in Belgium and France. French authorities have recovered £188m in taxes and fines from a list of 3,000 clients and Spain has recovered £220m, also from 3,000 clients.

The UK has faced criticism for prosecuting just one out of the 1,000 individuals whose details were contained in the cache of documents obtained by Hervé Falciani, a former employee of the bank.

Those files were the basis of last week’s reports by the Guardian and a collaboration of news outlets around the world about the scale of the tax avoidance operation being run by the bank’s Swiss subsidiary.

Prosecutors in Switzerland said the investigation followed those revelations, which showed how HSBC’s Swiss arm allowed clients to withdraw “bricks” of cash and helped clients conceal their accounts from domestic tax authorities.

Prosecutors said they were targeting the bank under a law that allows companies to be investigated independently of whether any employees are culpable “if it can be accused of not having taken all the organisational measures necessary” to prevent violations of the law.

Last year, Swiss authorities indicted Falciani on charges of data theft and said they may try him in absentia.

HSBC said: “We have co-operated continuously with the Swiss authorities since first becoming aware of the data theft in 2008 and we continue to cooperate.”

The revelations have caused a political row in Britain. The opposition Labour party has called on the chancellor, George Osborne, to answer questions about why there have been so few prosecutions by HM Revenue & Customs after it received the files hacked by Falciani in 2010.

HMRC identified more than 1,000 tax evaders after receiving the files and recovered £135m in repayments, but only one person was prosecuted.

A petition calling for the UK to investigate the affair is two-thirds of the way to towards its target of attracting 1m signatures.

The shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, has also called on the Osborne to explain why he and David Cameron gave HSBC chair Stephen Green a Tory peerage and appointed him trade minister “several months after the government was given information from the French government in May 2010”.

Green has so far refused to comment on the allegations, which covered his period at the helm of the bank, first as chief executive and later as chair.

Over the weekend, Stuart Gulliver, chief executive of the bank, issued an apology through some national newspapers in the UK. He has not yet spoken publicly about the scandal but will face questions about it when he presents the bank’s full year results in London on Monday.

Senior executives from the bank – including chairman Douglas Flint – are due to appear next Wednesday before a committee of parliamentarians in London to demonstrate that the culture of the bank has been overhauled.

Take the dementia test and find out your 'brain age'

LAST UPDATED AT 10:55 ON Thu 29 Jan 2015

Doctors believe that helping people work out their 'brain age' could help identify the risk of dementia in later life

Public Health England has announced that it's working on a tool to help calculate people's "brain age" by looking at lifestyle factors such as how much they drink, smoke and do exercise.

Doctors believe that the computer-based test could help identify the risk of dementia in later life.

Charles Alessi, Public Health England's lead on dementia, told The Guardian that the test was designed to be educational.

"We are offering people an opportunity to know exactly how risk factors can influence the rate of decline of their cognitive functions," he said. "Dementia is a whole group of conditions and we can manage some of the risks. We know, for example, smoking can accelerate cognitive decline."

A similar test has already been developed by Dr Vincent Fortanasce, clinical professor of neurology at the University of Southern California. The 25-question test, first published in the Daily Mirror, is intended to give respondents a sense of their brain age, and help them understand whether they could do more to improve their mental fitness.

The test is included in full below. Note: this test should be considered a guide only. If you have any concerns, visit your GP.

Thailand ranked most adulterous country in the world

By Asian Correspondent Staff Feb 18, 2015

Thailand is the most adulterous country in the world, according a new ranking from Statista, which found that 56% of married adults in the ‘Land of Smiles’ admitted to having an affair.

Thailand appears top be an anomaly among Asian nations – the other nine countries in the top 10-most-adulterous list are in Europe, ranging from Denmark in 2nd, where 46% of people cheat, to Finland and the UK in joint 9th, where 36% of people cheat. The results were based on data from ‘The Richest’ and Match.com, i100.independent.uk reports.

The Richer has this somewhat tenuous explanation for Thailand’s adultery ‘problem':

There isn’t necessarily a direct connection between sex work and adultery, but the industry contributes to a no-holds-barred vibe to sexuality in Thailand. Patpong is the first and sometimes only part of the country tourists see. Among expat males, young Thai girlfriends are a status symbol. There’s also an old tradition of polygamy called Mia Nois, lesser wives, which remains primarily among rich men.

Thailand’s top ranking for adultery in this ranking looks to be based on the results of a 2012 survey by condom-maker Durex which ranked Thai men as ‘the most adulterous’ (54%) and Thai women as ‘the second most adulterous’ (59%) partners in the world.

A report by English-language daily The Nation soon after reported that the survey “has been challenged by local medical and gender groups.”

Supensri Puengkoksung of the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation said the poll did not reflect the real situation in Thailand. It just reflected the opinion of people who were approached and ready to answer the survey. ‘You could not say that all Thai women had cheated on their partners and always had affairs with other men,’ she said.

Siam Voices writer Kaewmala took an in-depth the issue of infidelity in Thailand in her 2012 article, ‘Are Thais really the most adulterous couples in the world?’, and raised some serious doubts about the credibility of Durex’s findings.

Surely a significant percentage of Thai women cheat on their husbands and lovers, as each society must have its fair share of female and male cheaters. But 6 in 10 of Thai women “often” cheat on their partners? Egad!

Consider that about 30% of Thai women of marriageable age (15-45) nationwide are single (the figure is over 40% in Bangkok).* How can that be? If 6 in 10 Thai women are adulterous, while 3 don’t have a husband to cheat on, that leaves 1 in 10 being truly faithful in the religious sense of the word.

Satellites track snail disease risk

People come into contact with the schistosomiasis parasite when they enter water frequented by the snails

By Jonathan Amos016 February 2015

Scientists are tracking snails from space in a bid to combat the spread of parasitic disease in Africa.

The satellite information is being used to predict where infections are likely to occur, enabling health agencies to better target their resources.

It is one example of the growing influence of space-borne data in new healthcare applications.

The development was reported at a meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Jose.

It is not possible, of course, to see individual snails from orbit, but specialists will have a very good idea of where these creatures prefer to be and the conditions under which they will thrive.

And so it is with the watersnails that carry the larvae of the worms that spread schistosomiasis through human populations in Africa. The disease is not usually a killer, but it is debilitating.

In Kenya, scientists are making satellite maps of all the watercourses where these snail carriers are likely to reside, and plotting how they will move across the landscape. This information is then compared with satellite data on where people live on that landscape.

The combination of the two maps shows the highest risk locations - the places health programmes should be concentrated.

Similar work is being done with disease-spreading insects, such as mosquitoes.

Ground truth
The watersnail hosts a key stage in the parasitic worm's life cycle

This field of spatial epidemiology has benefitted from the avalanche of data now coming from Earth observing satellites.

Uriel Kitron from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, conducted the schistosomiasis work in Kenya.

"One of the big challenges that all public health agencies have - and that's true you know in the UK, in the US or in Kenya - is limited resources.

"If we can help them target the resources in space and time, that is a huge service we can do."

Ken Linthicum from the US Department of Agriculture has been using space data to forecast the future risk of malaria, dengue fever, chikungunya and Rift Valley virus.

He cautions that satellites, as wonderful as they are, still have to be supported by work on the ground.

“The key is understanding the ecology and transmission dynamics of the disease beforehand. It's not really appropriate to look at data and then say, 'ok, how can I use that data?'.

"You have to know what’s going on with the disease. In the case of Rift Valley fever, we discovered that it was heavy rainfall that floods habitats, producing the hatch of mosquito eggs that produce the virus. In the case of chikungunya or dengue in Africa, for example, it’s drought conditions that enhance mosquito-breeding habitats near people and then the high temperatures that boost transmission in the mosquito."

European system

But used with care, the satellite information can prove very powerful, said Prof Kitron.

"Another good example is lyme disease. Soil moisture is very important for survival of the ticks that transmit it. So, by mapping soil moisture by satellite you can create a good risk map.

"Another obvious one is vegetation because different types of vegetation are associated with different insect vectors of disease, or with birds and rodents that might be important. We can now actually map not just where there is vegetation, but the type of vegetation.”

The volume of data used in these applications will jump massively over the next few years as the European Union rolls out its Sentinel satellites.

This fleet of spacecraft represents the largest commitment in history to the observation of Earth from orbit, and all the information will be open and free to use.

Archie Clements from the Australian National University commented: "I do think there is going to be some key advantages of the availability of this data, partly because the spatial resolution is going to be high and also because the temporal resolution is going to be high – which means we’re going to be able to track the dynamics of diseases much more effectively over time and look at patterns of disease emergence and change."

The European Union is building a new constellation of satellites called the Sentinels

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk an follow me on Twitter:@BBCAmos